Optical properties of ZnS nanoparticles produced by mechanochemical method

Nanosized zinc sulfide (ZnS) has been synthesized by the mechanochcmical route using zinc acetate and sodium sulfide as source materials in a high energy planetary ball mill (HEPBM) with 300 rpm for 2 h. The mcchanochemically synthesized powders have been analyzed by X-ray diffraction (XRD) for phase analysis, Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (FESEM) for the morphological characterization, UV-vis-NIR spectrophotometer for determining band gap energy and Fluorescence spectroscopy for determining the emission wavelength. The crystallite size of the synthesized ZnS nanoparticles calculated by the Debye-Scherer's formula is in the range 7-9 nm. FESEM morphology shows the fibrous structure of ZnS samples. The value of optical band gap has been found to be in the range 5.2-5.3 eV. Room temperature photoluminescence (PL) spectrum of the samples exhibits a blue light emission using UV excitation wavelength of 280 nm. (c) 2012 Elsevier Ltd and Techna Group S.r.l. All rights reserved.